Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to you!

It was so nice to hear from you when I was in Boise. I had a wonderful time in Boise. This time, my yonger brother Sriram had also come. I got sick just before leaving Boise, and there is no better place to get sick! All of them were taking such good care of me. I definitely don't deserve it, but such is the nature of Vaishnavas that they show love and compassion to everyone.

I have been chanting 16 rounds everyday and following the 4 regulative principles. On a few days, I feel nice satisfaction after my rounds, but on most days, it eludes me. My morning program is not stable and I can see from your instructions that stabilizing my morning program will help fix that. It is a work in progress.

The university program we started here concluded for the semester last week. It was a decent start. About 15 students on an average attended every program. Lots of improvements can be made there. We will start the program again next semester.

The soundcloud account (https://soundcloud.com/user-938973912) now has 228 lectures. On an average about 35 lectures are heard in a week. I have dowloaded most of your Srimad Bhagavatam lectures from esanga to be uploaded here. The filenames need to to cleaned before uploading them. If any of my godsiblings have a recording of your lecture that isn't there in iskcondesiretree or in esanga, I request them to send it to [email protected] so that all of us can have access to that.

I have been travelling a lot in the last couple of months. I was in Dallas last week. My office had arranged a "look-see" trip to help us make our decisions regarding relocation. I went to Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji temple for the sunday feast. I loved the deities. Kalachandji had such a big smile and He reminded me of Lord Varadharaja in Kanchipuram. I experienced the aspect of Krishna being personally present in the deity form. It was a surreal experience. It was as if Krishna was reciprocating to my feelings after taking His darshan. I mostly think I'll be relocating to Dallas next June, but I want to make the decision after coming back from India.

Next week, I am travelling to India. After the visa interview, I am going to Mayapur for a few days before joining Radhika Ramana Prabhu in Kolkata on 19-Dec. On 20-Dec, the day of your Sri Vyasa puja, his friend is taking us around Kolkata to show us the places where Srila Prabhupada performed his pastimes. This would be my first Vyasa puja celebration. How would you like me to serve you Guru Maharaja?

HpS - Write shorter letters.  Ha!  Ha!   It is hard because there is so much happening, but you have to pick the highlights. Prioritize.  So much ahead of you!

Then we travel together to Vrindavana the next day where my parents join us. I again beg for your mercy so that I can go to Vrindavan in the right mood and see beyond the veil of Kali yuga.

HpS - See attached foto!

Your servant

Srinatha Krsna dasa

HpS - Wow!  You are so fixed in service. Please get fixed in getting up early or it seems you may burn yourself out!  O.K????

Prioritize.

We are you servants!

Please get up early in Vrndavana. Smell the air. Walk quietly for a little bit!

 Dear Maharaja!

Hare Krishna ! AGTSP!! 

Accept my most humble obeisances at you! 

Dear Maharaja, i hope your in good health, and doing good in this coming winter season! answering to the question you ask me, yes, we were introduce by Japa  Nama Rama das, he is one of your disciple from Panama, he introduced us when you were on Chile back on june, i draw a moneky dancing to Lord Jagannath , im a tattoo artist, and a painter, and also a writer! and a humble woman desiring to get to the service of the Lord :) you are right about how to keeping mind on track is a very personal job, im trying everyday to improve and do my best, i've found the way to calm the mind its to be really hard on keeping track on doing things the best we can, like practicing the principles. i used to get up late like a 9am, but lately i've been improving, like getting up at 6 or 7am, i try to go to bed early but my job keeps me from going early anyway. Mangal Arti at 4:30 am when i'm able to stay at the temple, but when i go to the temple i always try to pay service helping in the kitchen or now my current service is also washing Srila Prabhupada's clothing, which makes me feel really happy, honored and responsable. i really wish i could go back to Venezuela maharaja, i miss my country really bad...i want to do a lot there, but now going back could mean a risk for my daughter and for me. I hope to get to go back anytime soon at least to visit my family and friends there. I hope your doing good maharaja, i really looking foward to go and visit you next time you go to either Chile or Peru. im taking photos of the service every sunday, it's ,i think, a pretty nice way to keep track of my service and show people Krishna Conciousness :) Mya (my 10 year old daughter) is reading "the light of the Bhagavatam: poems from India" and doing service at the temple, she assisted to her first fire ceremony last sunday. she is so happy at the temple. i send the best of wishes to you maharaja. i'll be waiting for more instructions!! 

 Hare Krsna Dear Maharaja

 Bhaktina Andrea (Joan of Arc) 

HpS - ASA - Thank you!!    There was a big, beautiful, full color art book called KRSNA Art that cost about $100. Many tatoo stores bought it and people would pick pictures from it for their tatoos.

Hare Krsna, Dear Gurudev!
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
All glories to Guru Parampara. Radha Krsna Ki Jay.

Dandavat Pranam,

I am so so happy to get Guruji's amrtabani reply of my previous question. Sometimes it happen and make confusion at the time of translation. Next Sunday, I will narrate Bhagavatam 9:12:1-16. It is our continuous process. In the midle I will try to explain the process of Bhakti. How it will implement in our Mandir and Bhaktas. The explanation of Anyabhilasa-sunyam, Bhava, Prema, Raga-Anuraga, Rati etc. in the  simplest form.

From next year, I will start to distribution the  monthly journal of ISKCON Imphal "Bhagavat Paojel" among our bhaktas and surroundings. So, it will help me to contact new members and get a chance to talk with them about the  Bhagavan Sri Krsna, His Name, Guna, Rupa, Lila, Dhama, and His associates in Vrndavan.

When reading BRS with sangskrit text, I took NOD as reference. It makes me easier to graps the ideas with examples.

My son got his service and will join from the 12th of this month at Moreh the border town of Manipur with Myanmar (Burma). Now he start reading ISKCON books but not started chanting.

Before going Nabadwip, I had study some idea about nine dwipas. It will help me personally after seeing the exact 9 dwips.

As mataji informed me Guruji's Vyasa Puja fals on the 20th Dec. 2017. We will join at Imphal and participate Guru Pujah. 

Please guide me from time to time.  

Yours fallen servant,

Yamunesvara Das.

HpS - You make us cry!   You are such a hurricane of devotion! We hope you also have peaceful time to just go for walks with Krsna!!!
We wait for news of the ISKCON newspaper.

Hare Krsna Gurumaharaja
Please accept my humble obeisances
All gflories to Srila Prabhupada !!

I have not written you for some time, this year my letters have not been very frequent and I apologize for that. This year has been important in many aspects: issues such as the role of men and women in marriage, false renunciation, celibacy and control of the senses, devotional service in grhastha asrama and mundane work, surrendering and other matters have been murky, but now they have become more understandable. 

The artificiality with which we assume these commitments were very negative and brought confusion and pain for a while. On one hand, we are very ignorant in certain subjects, on the other, there is a lot of information out there and does not always come from devotees who have realized positively these issues.

There are also no well-established programs of devotee care or counseling for couples. Many of us live our process in isolation. Indira sakti and I want to be devotees and little by little we have gone finding answers to our doubts. Thank God, by reading your letters again and again, by reading the books of Srila Prabhupada and by hearing classes of exemplary devotees on the Internet we could find gold. Today we are better, the component of happiness in our process it seems to bloom discreetly, at last.

HpS - So, lets develop nice educational programs for Grhasthas.

On the other hand, I think I have found the service that best fits me in the present conjuncture of the yatra. For 8 months we have been serving the deity in Wilson's pujari and it has been a great experience. There's a lot what to learn. We really like to wake them up because the deities are more eloquent at that time, it is also a silent, intimate and solitary service, although very intense. Japa seems firm. My readings are kept systematically; in addition to Bhakti sastri with LAD, we are translating and studying  the study guide of Gauranga Priya Prabhu.

Also I am reading the complete work of the Prabhupada Lilamrta and scientific dissemination texts like Emergence by Steven Johnson that is about the theory of self-organization or about how to develop massive complex behavior from individual,  simple behaviors (ants? neurons? cities?)

HpS - Ha! Ha!  But Rome was started by two complex individuals, no?

In relation to  service, we have been gathering with  Karuna Krsna prabhu and Yugala Kisora mataji  for the coordination on education but we have not been able to do much. It seems that the National Board does not think that Yugala mother and I should be part of this commission, they would prefer other devotees more close to them. 
Working with prabhu Karuna Krsna. For now, under KKD instruction, we are working on a intellectual level, writing articles related to educational development issues. KKD is working on topics related to VAD and I prepare an article on the mechanics of learning, entitled "Learning to learn". When it's ready, I'll sent it to you so  you can kindly give me your opinion, Gurudeva.

I say goodbye with optimism because the problems are getting solved, maybe not at the pace we want, but we are improving.

I take advantage of the circumstance to ask you a question: Krsna seems permanently to expand His experience of pleasure, however, he is completely self-satisfied. Where does that longing for pleasure come from, or rather, how can being full satisfied give rise to a desire?

HpS - I think it was Goethe who said, "In desire I lack all fulfillment, and in fulfillment I lack all desire", but with Krsna let us say that part of His complete satisfaction is the knowledge that He still has desires. It is so satisfying to finish the job but then know that another job is just now coming. It is a matter of tasteful arrangments of desire and satisfaction that would be  hard to accomodate in a purely Euclidean Space, so maybe we have to include Polar Geometry as well. Ha!  Ha!    (Or even higher spaces lile Braja).

I hope your health is improving, Gurudeva.
I hope to see you soon.

Your servant
Gandharva dasa

ASA - Yeah!    You discuss so many things that we cannot respond to all of them. Even half of them. Write more often in smaller portions.
In general it seem good that your conclusion is to still be working with SRILA PRABHUPADA's Iskcon. Make it your own personal responsibility.

Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaj

Todas las Glorias a Srila Prabhupada

Por favor acepte mis reverencias

La semana pasada comenzé dos grupos Bhakti vriksha. En el Callao, en casa de Prabhu Abhiram y en Chorrillos, en casa de Prabhu Gandharva. La intención es unir a los devotos y ver la manera de predicar Conciencia de Krishna. 

El curso de Introducción de Bhakti yoga esta planeado para que termine en Febrero, a la vez ellos también están realizando servicio de guirnaldas en el templo y tambien dos devotas desean aspirar a un maestro espiritual. Los alumnos que tengo son constantes y estoy tratando de acercarme más a ellos

Aprovechando mis vacaciones, estoy asistiendo 4 veces a la semana al templo de wilson para el mangala artik, a la vez que aprovecho la asociación de los devotos

Gracias por su constante inspiración

Jagat Pavitram Das

(LIMA - PERU)

HpS - Muy bien. Si, Bh. Vrksa es super sistema y por que no ampliando hasta hay seis Bh. Vrksa in Callao en entonces un Centro Permanente!

Haré Krishna dear gurudeva please accept my humble obeisances all glories to Srila Prabhupada

thank you very much for your answer

ASA - Two Months ago!   Sorry for delay. Traveling to India.

...is just  i needed, you are the main force for me, 

now I have been given the great opportunity to travel through South America doing Harinama and sankirtan with Mahavisnu Swami until December and the temple authorities agree

I feel that I am very white I need inspiration.

ASA - White???   Green, maybe?  Means fresh, new, inexperienced.

Please, I ask for your blessings in order to distribute thousands of books.

HpS - Hare Krsna!!!!!  It may help a little bit, but need blessing of other ISKCON members more.

you are my own life

HpS - You are very kind!  What has happened since this letter?  You had a big fall down and have been eating chocolate every month?  You have been instructed to take Sannyasa??

his servant Vrajndra kumara das

ASA - Your servants!!!!!   HpS, TB, BW et al. Try to make people ito book distributors.